


the heart

by Darkfromday



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmates, and Loki lies a LOT, but Clint's mama is important to him, everybody but Clint and Loki are just mentioned, so Clint looks like he's been to the tattoo parlor too many times, your soulmate's lies are recorded on your skin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 09:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8200508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkfromday/pseuds/Darkfromday
Summary: Clint's really curious about just who his soulmate is and how he lies this much.





	

One of his first distinct memories was of his mother’s gaze and of a tingling sensation, like someone’s finger was looping and stroking across his tiny forearm. He’d looked down at the new writing adorning it, missing his mother’s secret smile but not her words.

“Looks like you’ve got an _imaginative_ other half!”

That wasn’t understandable at three, but then again, neither were the words _I didn’t take Mjölnir anywhere_ ; as a babe, all he knew was that somewhere out there someone important to him was talking, breathing, living.

Clint would learn later that they were also lying.

The marks—the streams of words, the halting and then smooth sentences and cutting retorts—were all falsehoods of one kind or another, because that was how the world worked apparently. Why get to know your soulmate through their truths when you could know all their lies? But no one questioned the way of fate, and certainly not how soulmates were brought together. Whether the lie was tiny or mammoth, many people managed to use the collection of clues to find their One.

Whether they _stayed_ with them all that long was another matter. After all, according to hearsay, Harold Barton’s first words that appeared on Edith’s leg had been _I won’t hurt you_. Probably should’ve been a clue for the family’s eventual shitty fate.

(Not that Clint blamed his momma for his dad being a piece of shit, no. Not entirely. Because soulmate phrases weren’t just lies—sometimes they erased themselves after being formed, proving the phrase at least a little true. So maybe Edith Barton had thought Harold would only hurt her once, or twice. Maybe she thought it wouldn’t be physical. Maybe she’d thought he wouldn’t touch their kids. Maybe the words had come back at some point, somewhere Clint and Barney hadn’t seen, to validate the hell the lies were putting them through.

So many maybes.)

It was why Clint kind of awkwardly twitched whenever he felt that looping lie-sensation mark another part of his body. He wanted no part of finding the man or woman who was quickly turning him into a living canvas. Love was a roulette that had failed his parents and all his acquaintances; why let it roll over him?

He was paler than his apartment wall, but by the time he hooked up with SHIELD hardly anyone would’ve known. Patterns upon patterns of falsehood ringed his forearms, chest, thighs and neck, incomprehensible strings of _I had nothing to do with Sif’s hair_ and _I’d crush Niflheim with my bare hands_ , _I’m the fairest maiden in the Nine Realms_ and _I would be Asgard’s better king, not you_. The words appeared in an inky font so fine and tight it might have been calligraphy if it were just a little more loopy. Then again, Clint often thought his _soulmate_ was a little loopy (maybe they were in an institution?) because none of the shit they said _made any damn sense_.

(Also, why the _hell_ did they lie so much? About literally everything?)

Of course, that was years before the world opened up, and the age of superheroes began. Shortly before Clint was sent on assignment to New Mexico to guard some of SHIELD’s precious assets, his forearms went _nuts_ with new writing overlaying the old, shit about frost giants and adoption and kingdom. And when Thor touched down and took out twenty hot-blooded SHIELD agents to get to his precious mallet, Clint had to re-evaluate whether or not they were alone in the universe—and whether that was a good thing or not.

That same night and hours later, the swirls of language on him went crazy after he didn’t take the shot from above that might’ve brought Hammer Man down; he caught snatches when he bothered to check his ankles for the new phrases at night. _Father is dead. Mother has forbidden your return. I’m so sorry._ Clint knew from vent-eavesdropping that Thor had traveled the worlds—if he hadn’t disappeared back off to fuck-all, he’d have tracked the guy down and demanded an explanation, some kind of connection of the ink on his body to the fantastical stories he told about where he called home. If golden-haired godly-men could touch down from rainbow bridges to a distant land, where then might his truth-allergic soulmate be?

Turned out—not that far away.

The assignment to patrol HQ and guard the Tesseract flipped his entire world off its axis.

He’d taken the assignment on little sleep; the words had started  _keeping him awake_ , because they seared when they looped onto his skin now, and the halting sentences sounded too much like those of a victim under torture than was comfortable for him.

_I’LL DO ANYTHING IF YOU STOP_

_I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING_

_Asgard is weak, it will crumble with no trouble_

_I’ve never visited Midgard I don’t know anything about it I don’t know I don’t know_

_JUST KILL ME IF YOU’RE GOING TO_

Now, weeks after those nightmarish nights, Clint shuddered. Shook his head to try and clear the memory. He’d seen the ass-end of too many assignments gone wrong, where he’d had to sit tight, lose teeth and wait for Coulson or Nat to extract him. Knowing someone that mattered to him was being hurt and there was nothing he could do but be their lie detector…

After sharing his portal suspicions with Fury he trained his gaze back on the cube, his grip tightening on his bow. Soulmates sucked. Everything about it sucked. How the fuck could someone lie in capital stop-hurting-me letters? Who had that kind of power, to bullshit while being destabilized? If he and his mate ever met, should he hug them or kick the shit out of them?

The distraction of those thoughts meant that he missed a few more inane scribbles on his wrists—and the explosion from the Tesseract that sent out blue waves and put everyone on alert. And then Clint had no more time to think. A dark-haired stranger with forty-five eye bags and that really fucking powerful spear he was not supposed to have had appeared, and he had to fight for his life.

_Just—fuck, fuck fuck fuckity fuck._

Guy was fast. He had enough weapons to impress and infuriate Clint, meaning he had to dodge like three rounds of energy beams and watch out for the flying knives that kept cutting down his fellow agents. But no matter how swiftly and smoothly this guy fought, Clint felt… _serene_ , like there was no way he’d get hit. He knew the guy’s every move, which way he’d cut and duck. He didn’t know this guy from Adam Lambert, but keeping him on the defensive was so easy he might as well have been Barney, or…

_Whoa—wait. Where’s Fury?_

_Fuck, is everyone else down? I’m gonna have to get close to this guy, end the threat. Of course that would end up being on me._

_How did he take everyone out so quickly? He’s been here ninety seconds._

_What’s his plan? He’s gotta go through the whole rest of the building to get out. All Fury has to do is make it to the panic button and he’s sunk. He’s gotta know that._

_And why the **fuck** is my body on fire?!_

It was like the words themselves were aflame on his skin. Everywhere they marked was pulsing, like his soulmate was in danger, or like his soulmate was close. But other than the usual irritating looping earlier, Clint hadn’t felt a single sensation of being near his elusive One.

 _Fuck it_. He shook those thoughts out of his head too. _Doesn’t matter. I’ve gotta get back up and cover Fury, and make sure this dude doesn’t leave with the Tesseract._

Clint struggled back to his feet and—

_Too late._

His body _sang_ with flame, and the guy was holding onto his arm, twisting it back. He was going to die. He could barely think straight, struggle correctly; could barely do anything but lock gazes with this guy.

Spear-Dude’s eyes were bright green, but with a hue of blue that seemed to be reflecting from the spear he’d taken. He was extremely pale, lanky, with thin, stringy dark hair that seemed layered with blood and sweat ( _his own? from before?_ ) and something unidentifiable. Dude kinda looked like he’d been slapped around a bit before getting here.

And—he had his own soulmate’s lies spread across his collarbone. Things that seemed familiar to Clint if he squinted. There were words that made his mind scream because they sounded so familiar.  _Barney’s coming back. I saw myself in her; that’s why I saved her. Budapest went fine._

_No._

_Nonononono—he’s not—he can’t—_

_Wait._

_What’s he—_

Clint’s skin was humming over the back of his hand. That’s what usually went down before his soulmate was about to speak. Maybe it wasn’t—it might not be—maybe it was someone else. Were they close? Could they run in and save his life?

_Oh **fuck**._

Spear Dude wasn’t killing him. He was _talking_.

“You have heart.”

He moved the spear closer to Clint’s chest—but he only had eyes for the words looping into being on his hand, oh-so-quickly, before being erased, wiping themselves away. A sign of truth, hidden in the lie, making it impermanent. Like with his parents.

 _You have heart_.

Blue swallowed him. The Words choked off his fight.

**Author's Note:**

> The world needed more Frosthawk.
> 
> The original soulmate AU prompts can be found here: http://darkfromday.tumblr.com/post/150934803411/andhungry-soulmate-au-prompts-send-a-number
> 
> I tweaked number 15 to be 'lies in general' because Clint and Loki have had ZERO screen time together since The Avengers. Because yay Marvel, am I right? /s
> 
> 1/30/18 EDIT: HOLY KUDOS. Thanks, y'all. 200 feels very warm and fuzzy.


End file.
